I was born without toenails — now I’m an online sensation
Learning to live with a chronic condition was no easy feet for one woman.
A Tennessee teen who was born without toenails on her left foot revealed how she went from feeling like a freak to embracing her naked tootsies after realizing she was not alone.
Her videos detailing these unique attributes frequently amass millions of views on TikTok.
“It’s just a part of who I am; it’s what makes me unique; there’s no reason to be ashamed of it or feel bad about it.” Annabelle Anderson, 18, told Caters News Agency.
The college student specifically suffers from amniotic band syndrome (ABS), a rare birth defect that occurs when the amniotic sac’s lining is damaged during pregnancy, creating fibrous tissue strings that ensnare the fetus or umbilical cord.
In Anderson’s case, this prenatal net entangled her left foot, leaving her without several bones and nails.
Doctors were initially stumped by the congenital condition, which is fairly rare, affecting 1 in 1,200 to 15,000 live births.
Meanwhile, the tot’s parents were concerned that it would affect her mobility — which thankfully didn’t prove to be the case.
“My parents were really concerned that I wasn’t going to be able to walk or anything, but I can walk, run, and dance—I’m super grateful,” gushed Anderson. “I’m really lucky because, in a lot of cases, it’s a lot worse.
The mental effects of having no toenails were far more damaging.
“I did used to feel alone; when I was little, I could never find anyone that looked like me,” lamented the influencer, who used to devise excuses as to why her digits were denuded.
“When I was in middle school, I told a bunch of people different stories about why I had no toenails because I guess I just got bored of telling the same story,” Anderson recalled. “I told one girl that I put peanut butter on my toes, and my dog licked them off.
She added, “I would tell other people that I like that I got attacked when I was little.
As a result, Anderson felt like an outcast until one day, during her freshman year of high school, when she got tagged “a million times” in a video of a girl who “also had no toenails.”
“Her foot looked identical to mine, so I sent her a message on Instagram, and ever since then, we’ve been talking, and we had a bunch of conversations about it,” exclaimed the awestruck teen. “It was really crazy, because I thought I was literally the only one in the world with a foot that looked like that, but then I found my twin.”
She was especially impressed how her compatriot didn’t feel “insecure” or uncomfortable about her lack of foot claws.
Empowered by the knowledge that she wasn’t alone, Anderson decided to follow suit and “bare” all about her condition on TikTok.
The Tennessean’s humorous and often self-effacing videos detail her desire for “normal” toes as well as some of the ignorant reactions to her extremely bare feet.
Needless to say, these clips have resonated with gawkers online, some of whom revealed they were also suffering from the same condition.
“After my first video went viral, I started getting a ton of messages from people also saying they had no toenails,” Anderson recounted. “It’s so cool to see that there are so many other people like me out there; it kept inspiring me to make videos.”
The TikTokker ultimately hopes her content can help inspire others to embrace their unique condition — just as her fellow claw-less influencer did with her all those years ago.
“A lot of people said that it made them feel more confident, so that definitely gave me motivation because I would never want anybody to feel insecure or ashamed about having no toenails,” she declared.
